Math Scores Fell in Nearly Every State, and Reading Dipped on National Exam

According to an authoritative national exam released on Monday, students in most states have experienced troubling setbacks in both math and reading.

The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation's report card, which tests a broad sample of fourth and eighth graders and dates to the early 1990s, showed a steep decline in math.

The first results of the test show that math scores for eighth graders fell in almost all states. The percentage of eighth graders who were proficient decreased from the previous year.

Declines in 41 states were worse for fourth graders. The percentage of fourth graders who were proficient in math went down.

The reading scores declined in more than half of the states. There was no noticeable improvement in reading. A designation that means students have demonstrated competency and are on track for future success is called proficient standards.

The Pandemic has left vulnerable students further behind. The drops in their test scores were more pronounced and now they are more difficult to climb to.

The results of the nation's report card are unacceptable according to the Secretary of Education. This is a critical time for education. Our nation's standing in the world will be determined by our response to this.

The exam, which is administered by federal officials and is considered more rigorous than many state tests, was taken by nearly half a million fourth and eighth graders. The results are detailed for each state.

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There are questions about where the country will go from here. The federal government invested the largest amount of money in American schools last year. School districts were required to spend at least 20 percent of the money on academic recovery, a threshold that some experts believe is inadequate.

It could take billions more dollars and years for students to recover if the funding is not renewed.

The test results could be used to reignite the debate over how long schools should stay closed, an issue that galvanized parents and teachers.

The bleak results underscored how closing schools hurt students, but researchers cautioned against drawing quick conclusions about whether states where schools stayed remote had worse results.

Depending on the local school district and virus transmission rates, the decision about how long to keep schools closed varies from state to state. Poverty levels and a state's specific education policies may affect results.

The picture was mixed and the performance was not always clear cut.

Texas, where many schools opened sooner, held steady in reading but saw a decline in math.

In California, which stood out for its caution in reopening schools, scores declined slightly less than national averages in several categories. According to data by Burbio, a school tracking site, Los Angeles was the only place in the country that showed significant gains in eighth- grade reading.

"Comparing states is difficult and people will likely go to red state, blue state, which is not the most helpful framing," said Sean Reardon, a professor of education atStanford University who is conducting a deeper analysis to try to come to more definitive answers

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Today's students are doing better in math than they did 30 years ago. For the last 10 years, math scores have remained constant.

This year the stability was broken.

The average score fell in all but one state in eighth grade. There were double-digit drops in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Utah was the only state where the eighth- grade math decline was not significant.

Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C. fell by double digits in fourth and eighth grade math.

The National Center for Education Statistics is the research arm of the Department of Education and it administers the exam. She said students may not have the skills they need in high school to be successful in math and science careers.

Fewer eighth graders were able to measure the length of a diagonal or convert miles to yards in 2019.

Students received more help from their parents during the Pandemic, which may have reduced the impact of reading.

According to Matthew Chingos, who directs the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute, the national results are consistent with other data that suggests math scores are more dependent on what is being taught in school.

More than half of the states saw declines in reading in both grades. Reading scores went down in many states in the year.

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The Pandemic exposed the deep and troubling inequalities in American life.

When it came to math and reading in fourth grade, students in the bottom 25th percentile lost more ground than students in the top 25th percentile.

Black and Hispanic students started out behind their white and Asian peers in fourth- grade math.

Black and Hispanic students are more likely to attend schools in poverty than are wealthier students.

The impact was particularly bad for students who were struggling. Only half of fourth graders who were low performers in math said they had access to a computer at all times during the 2020-21 school year, compared with 80 percent of high performers.

70 percent of people said they had a quiet place to work, compared with 90 percent for high performers.

New York City, Dallas and Miami-Dade held their own in reading.

Raymond Hart is the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which works with 77 of the nation's largest urban public school districts. Recovery and rebound is possible for students.

Students in Cleveland and Memphis can't afford to lose ground. They showed large declines this year across both grade levels and subjects even though they were already struggling with poverty.

Only six percent of fourth graders in Detroit were proficient in math in 2019. The number went down to 3 percent.

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Test scores are only one of the factors that matter for a child's future.

People who don't read well in elementary school are more likely to drop out of high school. The ninth grade is where eighth graders who took the test in the spring are now.

The interim chief executive of the Education Trust said that they need to target their resources to students who have been historically underserved.

Billions of dollars in Pandemic aid is the key to hope for recovery. Districts were allowed to spend the money as they please.

Many districts don't have a plan for math, according to the director of the education lab at Georgetown. She believes that districts will need to spend at least 20% of their relief money on academic recovery.

Research shows that one option is more time. Strategies that have shown promise include frequent small group tutoring and doubling up on math classes.

Kevin Huffman, a former education commissioner in Tennessee who is now the chief executive of Accelerate, a nonprofit focused on tutoring, urged leaders to make a moral commitment to helping students recover from the swine flu.

He said that as a country we can't say that the year was the best of American education.